Easy Ways to Talk about the Future in Spanish

It was almost lunch time, when Umir came to my desk and asked me this: “How do I say: “I am going to the bathroom?”

“Why do you want to know that?” I asked.

He replied: “Because I was on my way to the bathroom, I got curious and I started thinking: How would I say this in Spanish?”

He continued by saying: “I already know a little about the present tense. But, how do I talk about the future in Spanish?”

I explained that an easy way to say “I am going to the bathroom” in Spanish is: “Voy a ir al baño”, and then continued to share a few basic tools to talk about the future in Spanish during lunch.

Today, we will review a few of the tools I shared with him that day, as well as additional ones that have been very useful for my students over the years.

In this article, we will review a few conversational shortcuts that will be useful for beginners who want to talk about the future in Spanish without having to memorize lots of conjugations.

Although these shortcuts are not 100% strictly perfect in terms of traditional grammar, they are simple and effective language tools beginners can use to talk about the future quickly while avoiding the unnecessary complexity that overwhelms and discourages many students.

We will review a few grammar related terms, but I assure you it is not the usual “grammar intensive” approach. Bear with me and take a look at the examples so you can see how easy it is.

If you are just getting started, focus on learning these shortcuts for the first person of singular (I – Yo.) Like this, you will learn to express yourself quickly and you’ll build on that momentum later on.

In case you are in a hurry…

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Shortcut 1 for talking about the future:

“I am going to + infinitive”

Here is an easy way to talk about the near future beginners can use to avoid conjugating all verbs in the future tense. By the way, this is used by native speakers everyday when they talk about their plans (I use it all the time!)

A note about the use of Personal Pronouns:

As you continue learning Spanish you will realize that native speakers rarely use “yo” before a verb. That is because the conjugation of a verb implies who is performing the action.

If you are just getting started, I strongly suggest you use the pronouns (such as yo, tú, él) before verbs in order to practice and make it easier for others to understand what you are saying.

As you become more confident and start feeling that the “yo” is getting in the way of your conversation, feel free to drop it. As with athletic training, listen to your body (in this case, your brain) and do what feels natural after practicing many times.

Keep things simple in the beginning, learn the basics. Start by walking and then move on to running when you feel walking is not fun enough.

That´s all for today. See you in the comments. ¡Hasta la próxima! (See you next time.)

Get a Printable Copy of this Guide and Study more later:

Sign up here and we’ll send you a downloadable PDF version you can save it to review later. The PDF document has all the information and links on this page plus 5 video lessons and occasional emails with more practice materials! (We hate spam as much as you, and we’ll only ned useful stuff. Promise!)